Proper recovery after your runs is extremely important. I can’t stress this enough. You are on a runner’s high, pushing through the pain, and finish with muscles that are sore and tight. You may not realize it in the moment, but they need to be repaired. The steps below will help you with proper recovery after a run so that you are keeping your body replenished and healthy.
1.) Short Walk
After you finish your run, I’d recommend walking it off for a few blocks. I often put my hands behind my head to lift my arms and let my lungs breathe. I focus on my breathing while I’m walking and let my muscles cool down. If you can, walk a half mile. If you aren’t able to do that, walk as long as you can so that your muscles can attempt to recover.
2.) Static Stretching
Stretching is extremely important after a run to avoid injuries!! This is huge!! I can’t tell you how many injuries I’ve gotten that could have been avoided if I had stretched properly. It makes me sick now to think about. Thousands of dollars spent and months out of training all from something that could have been avoided with stretching. Don’t do dynamic stretching after your run. Do dynamic stretching before your run, but do static stretching after your run.
During your runs, your muscles have shortened due to the quick, repetitive movements. You need to elongate your muscles by stretching them and holding the stretch for at least a minute. If you can do 2 minutes, then even better! Don’t bounce and don’t push it. Let your muscles relax into the stretch easily. Focus on stretching your quads, legs, glutes, arms, and back (basically everything!).
3.) Foam Rolling
After stretching, get on a foam roller. This will help you the most (in my opinion) with muscle recovery. See my post on the foam rolling exercises I recommend (coming soon). Focus on your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves. Some of my favorite foam rollers are below and they are LIFE CHANGING! You will love them! My body feels weird and almost lazy when I don’t use them. It’s like getting a massage. Therefore, after you use them, you’ll feel much stronger and it makes a world of difference for muscle recovery. If I don’t use a foam roller after my workouts, I get too tight…this causes injuries.
TriggerPoint GRID Foam Roller– For getting into deep tissue (Hurts A LOT, which means it’s doing it’s job!)
3.) Hydration
After losing so much water/salt through sweating during your run, you need to hydrate. Spend some time drinking a large glass of water. I always recommend luke warm water. I know, I know…gross, right? Wrong! Ice cold water is actually not the best for your body after long runs. The cold state of the water restricts your body’s ability to soak it up and replenish. Also, the human body will tend to consume much more luke warm water than ice water since your body can only take in so much ice water before it feels satisfied. If you drink luke warm water, you will take down a lot more, which will fuel your muscles even more and rehydrate your body which will decrease muscle soreness. I swear, water is a miracle drug!! I always fill up my favorite 32 oz stainless steel water bottle and chug down the water with a straw. Yes, you will take in more water if you drink it with a straw. HIGHLY RECOMMEND! I have packages of these reusable straws and bring them with me everywhere! If you hydrate your body more, you will physically feel better, your skin will look better, etc. (Many benefits of water, folks!)
After water, feel free to take in ice cold gatorade. I love a nice bottle of cold gatorade after I’ve fueled my body with water. It’s very refreshing and the electrolytes will help your body recover faster.
I also always travel with electrolyte tablets in my purse. They are especially useful when traveling (even if it’s just on business) as I find I’m often dehydrated when traveling on business or on vacation. I always keep many flavors on hand and use them in place of sodas, etc. My friends and family love that I always have a fun drink on hand for them as well, no matter where we are!
4.) Nutrition
After taking care of your stretching and hydration, it’s time to eat! Grab a post run snack. Some of the best recovery snacks are chocolate milk, bananas, or toast with peanut butter. You want something with higher carb count to replenish the carbohydrates you lost during your run. I’ve had recovery smoothies as well and they are fantastic. Simple, easy to use, very portable and super refreshing!
About 30 mins to an hour after your long run, you can have a normal meal with protein, veggies, carbs, etc. However, right after your run, you should focus on having one of the snacks above to refuel your muscles.
5.) Ice
Ah, yes! You knew this was coming! The dreaded ice. Ice is something I’ve come to know very well and love. In fact, I can’t live without icing.
Focus on icing the areas that you have common problems with. For me, it’s my knees and groin. I always ice those areas after my runs for at least 20 mins. It makes a world of difference for me. If I don’t ice, I will most likely have muscle soreness or weak knees for a few days and will not be able to work out until it feels better. I have to ice just to keep the muscle soreness and tightness down. I highly recommend finding ice packs to suit your areas of trouble. I have a great post that talks about different types of ice packs here.
I hope these tools will assist you with your run recovery! If there’s anything I missed that works for you, let me know in the comments below! Also let me know if any of these were helpful for you! =)